Slain NYPD Officer Honored With Jamaica Street Renaming

JAMAICA, QUEENS -- Cops and city officials gathered in Jamaica on Monday for a street-renaming to honor the legacy of an officer slain in the line of duty 30 years ago.

Officer Edward Byrne had just turned 22 before he was gunned down in his patrol car on Feb. 26, 1988, while guarding the home of a witness set to testify in a drug case. Three decades later, officers unveiled a brand-new bright blue "Police Officer Edward Byrne" street sign outside the 103rd precinct where he served.

"It's a tremendous comfort to us all, and it's quite an extraordinary act of kindness and remembrance," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Larry Byrne said of his slain brother.

Edward Byrne had named the 103rd precinct his top choice to work in after he graduated the police academy for the second time in 1987, Larry said.

"He wanted to work in a busy precinct," Larry Byrne said. "In 1988, like today, the 103 was one of the busiest precincts in the city."

The blue sign on the corner of 91 Avenue and 168th Street is a tribute both to Byrne and other officers killed in the line of duty. It sits across from the first sign dedicated to the slain officer, which was put up when 91st Avenue was renamed to "P.O Edward R. Byrne Avenue in 1995."

"For the last 30 years, newly assigned officers to the 103 are told to report for duty here...to the location, Edward Byrne Avenue," Larry Byrne said. "With this new sign that will continue for years to come."

At the re-dedication ceremony, NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill called the fatal shooting of Byrne 30 years ago a "wake-up call" and a turning point for the community and the 103rd precinct, which at the time was one of the most dangerous in the city.

"It was time to no longer accept the violence that was so prevalent in New York City back in the 70s and 80s," O'Neill said.

Crime has since decreased drastically in the area, though it didn't happen overnight, O'Neill said.

"It changed because of a lot of hard work," he said. "We'll continue to push crime down because that's what we do."

Mayor Bill de Blasio also paid his respect at the street rededication ceremony, calling Byrne's assassination a clear "call for change in this city."

"He did not die in vain by any stretch of the imagination," de Blasio said. "There was anger. There was revulsion at the death of this good young man...His life may have ended, but his tour of duty never did."

Lead photos via Danielle Woodward/Patch